1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and system for locating remote resources over a communication network.
2. Related Art
Recent advances in computer and network technologies have resulted in an increasing number of computer services being offered to an ever-increasing number of potential users of the resources. In a computer network, a computer that provides a service is generally termed a server computer or server, and a computer using the service is generally termed a client computer or client. The client may be any user of the service such as another computer, a computer device, or an application program. Moreover, a server in one context may be a client in another. For example, a computer with a large storage capacity may be a server that offers storage or filing service to clients. The same computer may not have its own printer, and may be a client using a printing service offered by another computer.
The vast number of computer services offered over computer networks such as the Internet are not useful unless they can be located by potential users of the services. Sun Microsystem's JINI™ distributed computing environment includes a discovery and join mechanism for locating services. In JINI's™ discovery and join mechanism, a requesting entity via a TCP connection. A requesting entity may use TCP to find a remote service, but the requesting entity must know how to connect to the remote service before making the request, thus the requesting entity must already know about the remote service. Accordingly JINI's™ discovery and join mechanism may not work well when a client is searching for a service outside the client's typical domain. Multicast typically works on a local area network. Even though it is possible to use multicast across domains, doing so may flood the network with data packets. Thus, use of JINI™ is limited to local area networks. Further, JINI™ lacks authentication support. JINI™ assumes all parties in the network are trusted. Thus, if a user connects her laptop to the network, she can automatically obtain full access to the services available in the network. Her access to the services available in the network cannot be limited.